Alcohol 'will cause NHS to collapse'

Standard Reporter12 April 2012

Alcohol misuse is costing the NHS up to £3billion a year with more than 28,000 hospital admissions caused by drink dependence or poisoning, a report warns today.

It sparked warnings of an NHS "paralysed" by alcohol problems which doctors said will "collapse" unless the problem is tackled.

The report, Your Very Good Health, said alcohol is implicated in 33,000 deaths a year - a 33 per cent rise since 1984. One in six people attending accident and emergency units has alcohol-related injuries or problems, it found.

Some 25 per cent of acute male admissions to hospital relate to alcohol while more than 5,000 people a year die in England and Wales as a direct result of drink, it said. The report was being launched today at a special one-day summit for primary care health workers, staged by Alcohol Concern in Birmingham.

The charity said improvements need to be made in detecting alcohol abuse and that GPs need more support in managing problem drinkers.

Dr Chris Luke of Cork University Hospital, warned the "NHS will collapse unless lifestyle issues such as alcohol are tackled". He added: "The NHS is on the brink of collapse and it is hard to argue otherwise. Health professionals are in a state of despair. "If one issue illustrates why there is this despair it is the issue of alcohol.

"Alcohol is a lifestyle issue which grows with affluence and is continuing to worsen steadily. Alcohol accounts for 1 in four acute male admissions and therefore is an incredibly important issue for the NHS. Alcohol typifies overload in the NHS."

Alcohol Concern director Eric Appleby added: "We are holding the conference because we want the new Primary Care Trusts, who will be responsible for commissioning local alcohol services from April this year, to avoid falling into the trap met by their predecessors.

"These have consistently underestimated the impact of alcohol misuse on patients' health and failed to give alcohol the priority it deserves."

A Department of Health spokesman said: "The Government takes alcohol misuse very seriously and recognises the damaging costs of its misuse both to individuals and society as a whole. It is exactly for this reason that the NHS Plan says that we will be implementing a national strategy to tackle alcohol misuse by 2004."

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